Babysitter, The (1969) - 3/5

Today the story of an older married man being seduced by a young barely legal beauty may be old hat but back in 1969 this was quite new, and even shocking as "The Babysitter" adds doses of exploitation goodness when it comes to nudity and even violence to make this a well worth watch for fans of exploitative drive-in entertainment.

The plot has an aging prosecutor (George E. Carey) whose marriage has become soured thanks to a surprise pregnancy with his wife resulting in her becoming a complete bitch and no longer wanting to have sex. His boring, bridge playing days are about to come to an end when he starts having a wild sexual fling with their gorgeous blond bomb babysitter (cult actress Patricia Wymer). All is going wonderful until he becomes blackmailed by one of his lesbian daughters friends who takes pictures in order for him to drop the case against her boyfriend who brutally murdered a women. Will our prosecutor throw the case to save his failing marriage and job or will he tough it out?

For an exploitation indie drama this actually wasn't half bad. Sure the acting can be touch and go but surprisingly Wymer and Carey actually pull off the romance believably. Patricia Wymer is very titular as our babysitter Candy and I can see why she had a cult following though she only appeared in 3 films (most notably in the horror film "The Witchmaker"). She bares her breasts and luscious bum periodically and director William O. Brown handles this occasional nudity and violence well without making it come out too raunchy or gratuitous.

I do have to complain about the ending so I am going to warn people that I am about to talk about a spoiler. (SPOILER START). After deciding not to throw the case, our prosecutor is prepared for the worst so he types up his letter of resignation and goes to see his boss the district attorney who wants to talk to him about receiving the incriminating pictures. Surprisingly his boss is okay with it and even wants to keep a picture for himself! Okay I can buy that but when his wife receives the pictures all she responds with is "perhaps we are playing too much bridge" and the film ends on a rather uplifting note. This whole ending makes it seem it's okay to cheat on one's spouse without any negative consequences and I just don't buy that. (END SPOILER).

Overall I found this to be an interestingly little exploitation drama with a luscious star and enough skin and occasional violence to keep things interesting through the dull moments. The film proved to be popular enough that a sequel titled "Weekend with the Babysitter" got released a year later but sadly Wymer didn't return as the title character. "The Babysitter" never got a VHS release but if finally made it's DVD debut in various cult film DVD collections for people that are interested.

Written By Eric Reifschneider